The Trouble With Mirrors
by Five-Kings-Cheat
Summary: Unfortunately for the cast of Inuyasha, Kagome's not the only girl who's been time hopping. Ever wanted to fall into the Inuyasha universe yourself? Maybe that's not such a good idea....


**The Trouble With Mirrors**

**Chapter 1: Does This Mean we Broke the 4th Wall?**

Credit for this ridiculous idea goes to Tchy's watch, not enough sleep, and a fanfic called Cinnamon Lips by Tchy's friend Cristen and two of _her_ friends.

* * *

"Rei, are you done in the bathroom yet?" Tchy demanded, pounding on the closed door.

"Yeah, gimme a sec," Rei called back, flushing the toilet. Moments later, the door opened to reveal a brown-eyed girl, her shoulder-length dark brown hair smooth from having just been brushed.

"Thank you," Tchy sighed, stepping into the room and snagging her toothbrush from the counter.

Rei was having a sleepover at Tchy's house that night, and as usual, it meant staying up until eleven watching movies, being forced into bed by Tchy's parents, and lying awake and talking until sometime after three in the morning. And, of course, endless chatter about their favourite TV show, Inuyasha, and the epic fanfic, The Doom of Prophecy, that Tchy was trying to finish sometime before the end of the decade.

"So how much more work have you done?" Rei asked, toothbrush in her mouth and her words sounding more than a bit garbled. Tchy, of course, knew exactly what she was saying; not only had they known each other for more than five years, it was a question that Rei repeated every time they saw each other.

"Not much, I'm afraid," she replied, equally incomprehensible, "My muse has gone on hiatus." She spit her toothpaste into the sink and rinsed her toothbrush, sitting on the edge of the counter. Rei finished just after.

"You know the story," Rei reasoned to her depressed-writer friend. "You just need to get it out on paper. That's what you've told me, too many times to count."

"Yeah, I know," Tchy sighed, "But it's at such a boring part. I was building up to the bit where Sesshoumaru fights Mouryoumaru, and now that I've passed it, it feels really hard to get started." She cracked her back and adjusted her wire-framed glasses, green-grey eyes staring into space and long brown hair falling in waves around her face. "I just need a... jolt, you know?"

At that moment a current of air passed through the room. Tchy glanced up at Rei. "What the spork was that?"

"I dunno," Rei replied, shrugging. Where could a wind have come from anyways?

"Girls, go to bed," came a yell from upstairs; it was Tchy's dad.

"Right," Tchy called loudly. She sighed and looked at Rei. "Let's go." Tchy stood up, placing her hand against the mirror for balance. Immediately there was a howling noise, like a very loud wind in her ears. She grabbed Rei's hand on a reflex and suddenly the two of them were standing in a forest in broad daylight, both looking disheveled, both utterly confused, and both wearing their pyjamas outside in a place that didn't look familar at all. Except that in an odd way, it did.

"Rei, look at our hands," Tchy whispered. They both stared down at their intertwined fingers. And stared.

"They look... animated," Rei replied at last.

"More than that. They look anime."

The two girls stared at each other, then at their surroundings. There was no doubt about it. They were standing in the middle of an anime world.

"I _knew_ this looked familar," burst Tchy finally.

"What?"

"There. That's the God-Tree," she pointed. "We're in the middle of Inuyasha's Forest."

"Goshinboku!" Rei screamed, running to the tree and attempting to wrap her arms around it. "_Talk to me!_ Is Tchy's dad on the other side? I wanna talk to him!"

She was jumping violently up and down now. Not a pretty sight.

"Rei," interrupted Tchy placatingly, "I think that only works if he's at the _tree_ on the other side. Besides, why would you want to talk to my dad?"

Rei suddenly stopped jumping and backed away from the tree. A feral grin spread across her face as she joined her friend. "This is the best sleepover ever! We could have fun with this, you know..."

"I'm sure we could. But how in seventeen hells are we going to get back?"

"Who cares right now!" Rei replied with flailing arm movements.

"Me, for one. I'd rather _not_ get stranded," Tchy replied dryly.

"Well, we're in the Sengoku Jidai, right?"

"Right..."

"And that's where Inuyasha and them are, right?"

"Riiiight." Tchy was getting impatient. She wanted to find a way to get home. She was as excited as Rei was, but she didn't want to get stuck in the past; if they had a sure way of getting home, she would have been quite happy to engage in an epic adventure with her best buddy, but until then she was going to be the practical one.

"Well, if you wanted to get back," Rei replied, oblivious to Tchy's internal dialogue, "All you'd have to do is hop through the well and get a plane ticket back to Canada."

"Aren't you forgetting something? The well only works for Kagome and Inuyasha. Besides, this isn't a simple case of hopping times."

"Huh?"

"You know what Kagome does, right? She goes from her time to this time. But the two times are part of the same universe. They're both in the Inuyasha anime. In this universe, the Inuyasha show doesn't exist, because this universe _is_ the Inuyasha show. However, in our universe, there _is_ an Inuyasha show. Hopping through the well wouldn't get us back, even if it would work. All it would do would be to dump us in another place in the show, and we'd still have to figure out how to get back to our world. We haven't just hopped times. We've hopped _universes_."

"Say that again in small words." Rei made a pinching motion with her index finger and thumb.

Tchy sighed. "Look, we don't live in the same universe as Kagome. She's part of an anime, based on a manga by Rumiko Takahashi. We are not in the anime, we are the people who _watch_ the anime. Inuyasha's time and Kagome's time are both in the anime universe. We are from a different universe altogether. Hopping through the well wouldn't get us back to our universe. We would still be in the anime."

"Oooh, I get it!" Rei exclaimed, making an O shape with her lips. She hopped up and down a couple of times. "That still doesn't mean we can't have fun! Let's go wait by the well-- or better yet, let's go into the village! We're sure to find someone there, most likely Kaede. She'll help us. C'mon!" Rei grabbed Tchy's arm and took off at a run.

"Rei, slow down. Stop right now!" She jerked on her friend's arm, and, when that didn't work, went deadweight and sat down heavily. Rei stumbled to a stop. "Let's just think for a minute. We can't go revealing that we come from another universe. Another time is one thing, but an alternate universe? No, I don't think so. We can't let anyone know that we know anything about them. We can't let them know that there's a show about them in our universe. If the characters in a show-- the characters, not the actors-- knew that they're just a show, what would happen to television?" She shook her head sadly.

"So let's pretend we're the next Kagomes then!" Rei proposed with a flip of her hair.

"Rei," Tchy scolded warningly, "We're not supposed to be here. What if we cause problems and mess up the plot, or the relationships or something? What if we get into some kind of legal trouble? We're unknown elements here, Rei. We shouldn't be here. We could really screw up the story without meaning to."

Rei rolled her eyes. "What kind of legal trouble are we going to get into with something like this?"

"Well, suppose Ms. Takahashi finds us in here. We could get sued!"

"Oh, yes, like _she's_ going to fall through a mirror and end up here!"

"Rei, she doesn't have to. Don't you get it? We're in an anime. Anyone who watches Inuyasha could potentially see us." Tchy sighed, shaking her head. "We have to find a way to get home." She paused, and her eyes grew wide. "That's it!" she cried, snapping her fingers. "Mirror. We have to find a mirror and get home!"

Rei pouted. "Can't we just have some fun before we go?" she asked sweetly, batting her lashes and smiling innocently.

"We're going to have to," Tchy replied grudgingly, "The only mirror I've ever seen here is Kanna's. If we want to get it, we'll have to find her; and Naraku, obviously. And if we do that, we're bound to run into every other major cast member in this show." Tchy shook her head, but really she was excited. Despite herself, she was really looking forward to it. "Let's just try not to cause _too_ much trouble, okay?"

* * *

**Authors' Notes:**

Tchy: Yep, it's us. And the sad thing is, that's probably exactly what we'd do. I'm way too practical sometimes.

Rei: And I'm just hyperactive!

Tchy: She also has no sense.

Rei: Hey!


End file.
